Russia Lead Olympiad After 6 Rounds

Russia lead both the Open and Women's competitions after six rounds of the Olympiad in Istanbul.

In the Open event, top seeds Russia faced third seeds Armenia with the top board clash between Vladimir Kramnik and Lev Aronian being a repeat of their friendly match in Zurich earlier this year.

This time it was Kramnik who came out on top, with a clever piece sacrifice which Aronian seemed to overlook. However, the Russians didn't have things all their own way, and the match ended all-square thanks to Sergey Movsesian's victory against Alexander Grischuk on board two.

Despite the drawn match, the Russian team took the lead thanks to a superior Sonneborn-Berger (S-B) tiebreak score.

Azerbaijan moved into third place thanks to a 3-1 win against Croatia. Azeri top board Teimour Radjabov has scored a perfect 5 wins out of 5 games played so far!

China's crushing 3½-½ win kept them in contention near the top of the standings

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The Philippines shocked the Bulgarians with a 2½-1½ win

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Eugenio Torre is competing in a record 21st Olympiad for the Philippines!

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In the women's competition the Russian leaders fought their nearest rivals, the top seeds China. Women's world champion Hou Yifan won on top board against Tatiana Kosintseva, but Tatiana's sister Nadezhda beat Zhao Xue on board two and the match ended drawn.

So Russia maintain their lead, but despite drawing the match China drop to third below Poland who crushed Serbia 3½-½ to move into second place. Russia will take on Poland in round 7, and China will play third seeds Georgia.

The top standings in the women's competition after 6 rounds:

#

Team

W

D

L

MP

S-B

BP

1

Russia

5

1

0

11

121.0

18.5

2

Poland

5

1

0

11

119.0

19.0

3

China

4

2

0

10

126.5

18.5

4

Ukraine

4

2

0

10

120.0

17.5

5

Georgia

4

2

0

10

116.5

18.5

6

France

5

0

1

10

103.5

19.0

7

Vietnam

5

0

1

10

88.5

16.5

8

Hungary

4

1

1

9

109.5

17.0

9

Greece

4

1

1

9

103.5

15.0

10

Serbia

4

1

1

9

99.0

16.5

11

Spain

4

1

1

9

92.5

16.0

12

Slovakia

4

1

1

9

92.0

14.5

13

India

4

1

1

9

88.0

15.5

14

Estonia

4

1

1

9

84.5

16.5

15

Uzbekistan

4

1

1

9

84.0

15.5

16

Montenegro

4

1

1

9

82.0

16.0

17

Peru

4

1

1

9

78.5

16.0

18

USA

3

2

1

8

96.5

16.0

19

Kazakhstan

3

2

1

8

93.5

16.5

20

Bulgaria

3

2

1

8

92.0

15.5

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The top two seeds in the women's competition - Russia and China

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Look out for live coverage on www.chess.com/tv (scroll down on that page to check the schedule for times).

Official website here. Full results and standings here. Photos and games from the official website. All the games can be replayed at the live games page.

Congratulations to the whole Philippine team. GM Barbosa, special kudos to you and mabuhay for battling it out to the very end, showing the true grit of the Filipino competitor in both chess and boxing. GM So, I hope you make it to 2700 soon and beyond. GM Torre, thanks and congrats for keeping the fight all these years. And congrats too to GM Marc Paragua and IM Oliver Dimakiling. Keep up the good fight. God bless. There is no victory except through Him.

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